1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope connector and an endoscope reprocessor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes have been widely used for in-vivo tests and treatments. Since an endoscope is inserted into a body, the endoscope is cleaned after use. An endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus for cleaning the endoscope has also been widely used.
In the cleaning of the endoscope by the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus, not only a surface of the endoscope but also insides of respective conduits provided on an inside of the endoscope are cleaned. Therefore, respective pipe sleeves communicating with the respective conduits in the endoscope and the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as cleaning apparatus as well) are connected by a cleaning tube, which is an endoscope connector, a cleaning solution, a disinfecting solution, a rinsing solution, and the like are fed into the respective conduits of the endoscope, whereby the insides of the respective conduits are cleaned and disinfected.
The endoscope connector, which connects the cleaning apparatus and the pipe sleeves of the endoscope, and the cleaning apparatus explained above are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-299697.
The cleaning apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-299697 includes a flow-rate measuring section that measures a flow rate of fluid delivered to the endoscope connector and includes a configuration that notifies, when a measurement result of the flow rate is outside a range of a set value, a user of the measurement result.
The cleaning apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-299697 measures the flow rate of the fluid delivered to the endoscope connector making use of a phenomenon in which a difference occurs in the flow rate of the fluid delivered from the cleaning apparatus to the endoscope connector when a pipe sleeve coupling section, that is, a connector section of the endoscope connector is correctly attached to the pipe sleeve of the endoscope and when the connector section of the endoscope connector is off the pipe sleeve. The cleaning apparatus compares the flow rate with the set value to thereby determine whether the connector section of the endoscope connector is correctly attached to the pipe sleeve of the endoscope.
In order for the cleaning apparatus explained above to correctly determine that the connector section of the endoscope connector is off the pipe sleeve, the difference in the flow rate is desirably large.